


Reactions

by Italianguy88



Category: Avengers (Comics), Marvel, Young Avengers
Genre: Gen, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Resurrection
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-03
Updated: 2015-01-03
Packaged: 2018-03-05 05:12:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3107417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Italianguy88/pseuds/Italianguy88
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cassie Lang's life and death meant a lot to many people. This is how some of them deal with her untimely death, and then with her unexpected return.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reactions

**Author's Note:**

> In which a family is broken, and a father learns about a side of his daughter he saw all too briefly.

There were no words that could explain how Scott Lang was feeling at the moment.

Had he been able to consider it coolly, he could have found in his heart surprise, confusion, curiosity and disorientation. After all, being transported in the future to be saved from an untimely death, in a world where pretty much everything had changed? Yes, that was a good excuse to not know what a guy was feeling.

The fact is, he couldn't consider anything; all he could feel, all that mattered at the moment, was that his daughter was dead. And everything else was being swept away by that black, all-consuming notion, that had destroyed his life and his soul.

Even in the rare moments in which he managed to raise his gaze from the cold floor of the Mansion, to look at the table over which devices and scanners were inhumnaly beeping and whirring, the sight of Cassie's body, battered, bruised and bloodied, her costume tattered, didn't strike anything, at least that could push him deeper from the black hole in which all his existence was now.

Looking at her face, which would have been similar to the face of her sleeping he had been so familiar with, had it not been for the cuts, the trail of now dry blood running from her mouth down to her chin, he had a flash of her expression when he had seen her before, running towards him like she had seen someone long lost, to hold him like a lifeline.

"Scott?"

Slowly, he turned his head, to look at Captain America and Iron Man towering over his slumped form.

"We have... we have asked Cassie's mother to come here. She... she must be told." Tony told him softly; looking at his eyes, Scott thought of the times Tony had walked into his house, to be greeted by a joyful and excited "Unca Tony!".

"I can tell her. You could..." Steve began, but was cut short immediately.

"No." Scott said, his voice spent yet full of a careless determination. Looking at both of them, he went on: "Cassie died because of me. I'll be the one who tells her."

"It was not your fault! It was Doom's..." Tony immediately protested.

"JUst because it looked like Doom had killed me... again." Scott lowered again his head. Judging from what he had guessed, his heart would have ached for his little girl's ordeal when he was believed dead, had it been able to ache more.

"No. Doom was going to kill everybody; with her intervention, Cassie allowed us to beat him." Cap's voice was vibrating with something that seemed like desperate belief. It was evident that he was trying to convince himself as much as Ant-Man.

Scott bent down again, deflated. "And she is dead. Perhaps one day I'll be able to console myself of that... but today, these are just words!"

Both Steve and Tony wished they could have said something at this point; but of course, they couldn't.

\----

The nervousness was palpable when Peggy and Blake Burdick entered the Mansion; the former was worried that something had happened to Cassie, while the latter, although sharing that concern up to a point, was extremely uncomfortable in being surrounded by superheroes.

But that nervousness was replaced by utter shock when they saw a figure standing up slowly and turning towards them. A figure all too familiar to both of them.

"...Scott?" Peggy breathed.

Ant-Man didn't answer, merely looking at them with glass eyes. What was going on?

"...You're back, Lang? How did this happen?" Blake exclaimed, puzzled.

Taking a few steps towards them, Scott again kept silent. After a few moments, he finally opened his mouth. "Peggy... Cassie is... is..."

A pair of hands went over a mouth instantly, while the cop tensed; both minds reached the same conclusion and refused to believe it.

"...She is dead!" The resurrected Avenger immediately teared up as those words escaped his mouth.

"No! No...! No no no no _no_....!" Peggy's predictable mantra began immediately, her eyes full of disbelief.

In response, Scott shifted sideways, and raised an arm towards a door.

As Peggy and Blake ran to the door and passed it, an anguished scream echoed in all the Mansion.

Despite everything, despite all the words, misunderstandings and fights that had occurred, Peggy was first and foremost a mother; and beyond all her fear and disdain for the world of her ex.husband, her worry for Cassie was sincere. So, her mother's heart was crushed as she saw her daughter's body lying on a cold surface, below cold lights that accentuated her innatural paleness.

The medical bay echoed with her grief as she sobbed uncontrollably, with a hand alternatively touching Cassie's blond hair and her inanimated face. But she didn't react; there was nothing left of the vibrant young girl there, only an empty husk.

Blake had stopped at the door, overwhelmed by the scene; slowly, Scott had reached him, tears flowing freely on his cheeks.

Blake was not by trade a bad person; he was thoroughly honest, and was inflexible in his job. However, he wasn't exactly open-minded, and his years of service in the N.Y.P.D. had left a deep mistrust of every so-called "buffoon in spandex" and everything related to them. And he wasn't good at expressing things with words, often letting his actions do the talk.

Thus, he reacted accordingly: suddenly, without warning, he lunged and punched Ant-Man in the face as hard as he could.

As he kissed the floor, Scott didn't notice the pain irradiating from his jaw; he didn't notice the furios expression of Blake. It didn't matter to him; and neither did the fists that the enraged cop began showering him with.

"THIS IS YOUR FAULT! HOW DID IT HAPPEN?"

"It was... my fault." Scott's answer was more like a whisper, and not because of the loosened teeth and the broken nose.

Again, Blake began to pummel him; his rage, his own distress (or was it distress at seeing his wife's grief?) poured all over the place.

"YOU GOT HER KILLED! PEGGY WARNED YOU, BUT YOU WOULDN'T LISTEN! THAT'S WHAT CASSIE GOT FOR HAVING A COSTUMED IDIOT FOR A FATHER! SO MUCH FOR THAT 'SAVING THE WORLD' BULLSHIT!!!"

The noise had attracted both Steve and Tony, and even Peggy, from the depth of her pain, had noticed her husband's tantrum. But before either of them could intervene on Scott's behalf (even though he wasn't looking like he cared about what was happening), another hand stopped Blake's arm mid-swing.

Looking up to glare at the cause of the interference, Burdick found himself looking up to a towering Thor; the expression of the God of Thunder was somber but firm, and the hammer, even though the hand wielding it wasn't raised, was a latent threat.

After a second in which his piercing blue eyes went through Blake's head, so much that he felt more than just a pang of fear, Thor spoke up, his voice soft but still booming all over the place.

"If you wish to express your scorn for the likes of us, thou art free to do so! However," and his voice assumed a much sharper tone, "I shalt not allow you to disrespect her deeds!"

And with the hammer, he gestured at the limp form of Stature.

The Odinson went on. "Young Cassandra fought a most valiant battle, indeed, and against the foulest and most dangerous opponent that a warrior can face on Midgard! It was only thanks to her actions that we succeeded in preventing Doctor Doom for becoming the undisputed dictator of these lands!"

Letting go of Blake's arm, Thor took a step back, suddenly looking as if bearing a great sadness, encompassing more than the recent events. "Seeing such a young and precious life being broken by such a heinous villain is unbearable; Odin knows that, had an occasion been given to me, I would have gladly given my own life to save hers. But that was not the wish of fate!"

The Asgardian turned towards Cassie's lifeless body. "Indeed, she saved the world from a most grave danger; her heroism is the greatest example that anyone calling himself a hero or a warrior is bound to follow." His head turned to give Blake another of the trademark glares of him. "Even the son of Odin himself!"

With that, Thor turned to leave the room; he slowed down only for a last phrase. "Before letting your anger dominate your actions, you should consider that thy freedom to feel what you are feeling now has been paid with Cassandra's blood today!"

Even after the massive and imposing figure disappeared, no one moved. Even Blake, frozen with his fist still closed, looking at where Thor had been.

But as for Scott, he had no reason to move. None at all. Not even Thor's words had shaken him.

\----

The stony features of Cassie didn't return the gazes of three people that were still standing in the Mansion's gardens, even after the ceremony had ended.

Scott didn't tear his eyes from the statue that honored his dead daughter. "She is honoured as an Avenger; yet I didn't get to know that Cassie. I didn't know the daughter that became a hero in my name."

Kate Bishop shifted awkwardly. "Um... well, she was... very determined. Very bent on making you proud."

Clint Barton, the senior Hawkeye, chuckled softly. "Yeah. It makes me remember... Do you remember when we teamed up, Scott? Did the whole 'shoot-you-with-the-arrow' thing? Well, some months ago, when she was with Pym's Avengers, and we were all fighting against an ancient Inhuman king, and I was borrowing Kate's bow, me and Cassie did the same thing." His expression turned sadder. "And all she said was, >. All she would say."

Scott let out a smile, trying to figure Cassie holding tight to the arrow's tip that Clint was shooting. "I wish I saw that..."

"You were her hero... her inspiration. She really looked up at you!" Kate added, fidgeting with her white scarf.

Holding up a hand to caress the basement of the statues, Scott looked down. "She shouldn't have. I... I didn't always make the right decisions. Especially the first ones."

"She understood that, Mr. Lang. She... she wanted to make sure that she looked up at you the right way! Like she told me, once..."

/

_"I screwed up."_

_"What?"_

_"I'm serious, Kate. I screwed up."_

_Putting a hand on her best friend's shoulder, Kate tried to smile convincingly. "Hey, c'mon. No one really has a grudge for what happened back then. Okay, Tommy kinda does, but it's mainly because he likes to be a smartass..."_

_Cassie turned to look at her. "That doesn't matter. Even if you guys are ok with that, what does it say about me that I got scared and bailed? I guess I can kinda understand why Billy thought that Vision and I were leaving the team for the big leagues, when we got drafted in Uncle Hank's team..."_

_"Hey, now! Nobody insults my best friend other than me, not even my best friend herself!" Kate's joke wasn't that funny, but it did bring a chuckle from the blonde girl. "But seriously, even though it was a blow at the time, I guess I can somewhat understand it now. Things were so confused back then, and Goliath had just been killed by that Thor wannabe... it would have shaken everyone's nerves!"_

_When Cassie didn't respond, Kate pushed even further. "Besides, we're still young. If we're supposed to screw up, this is the right age, isn't it?"_

_Stature sighed and looked away. "Perhaps I'm too young, Kate!"_

_"What? What do you mean?" Hawkeye asked, puzzled._

_"I can't help it... back then, and even now, sometimes... when I have to take a decision, I think >, even though I know it's wrong!" Turning to face Kate, Cassie bit her lip. "One of the reasons I decided to go over to the other side, is because I saw what a criminal life did to my dad... to my family. That's why I mostly grew up alone with Dad. And... after everything that happened... I just didn't want to find myself fighting other heroes!"_

_Pulling her friend into a hug, Kate patted her on the back. "Hey. Like I said, we are young, so we can afford to mess up a little. The important thing," and she broke the hug, to give her an encouraging smile, "is to recognize a mistake, so that you don't make that again!"_

_To her relief, Cassie answered with her own small smile. "Yeah... you're right. At least now I know were I truly belong!"_

/

"Yikes!" Clint let out, scratching the back of his head. "I'm glad I was kinda too dead to take part in that royal screw-up!"

Scott turned to face Kate. "Was it true? You didn't held it against her?"

"No. After the Skrull invasion, she came to us and told us she was sorry, and that was enough for us. Even for Tommy; he did tease her a bit for a while, though. The important thing was that she had learned the lesson."

Ant-Man glanced once again at the marble girl in costume and said nothing.

"At least she did; someone else didn't." A voice interrupted their thoughts.

It turned out that the voice belonged to a certain Dr. Henry Pym.

"Hank." Scott said, his voice dangerously neutral. "You're late."

Sighing, Hank held his gaze. "I... I'm not late. I simply chose... not to be present at the ceremony."

"Why?" Clint asked, puzzled.

"Because... because I failed Cassie." Hank confessed. Scott's eyes narrowed.

"Wha... what do you mean?" Kate intervened, trying to understand, and to avoid an explosion.

Turning to face her, Hank gifted her with a sad smile. "Even after everything that came down, being replaced by a Skrull, Jan's death, and everything, I should have been there for her. I know how difficult it can be for a child to lose his parent... to lose guidance; but I was too wrapped up with my own issues that I left her out. Even when she was on my team."

Looking up to see their faces, Pym chuckled softly. "Now I really feel like I should've done something... at least something more for her. Not just bark out orders, especially those that I knew would make her uncomfortable."

"What are you talking about now...?" Scott asked, not following.

Hawkeye senior tilted his head. "Are you talking about the attack on the FF? I heard something from Ben..."

"Yes. I needed something from Richards, and it went down to a nerd fight. I should've known that after living with them for years Cassie would've never accepted to attack them, I should have told her to sit this one out, but instead I went through with my plan."

Smiling a little bit, Kate piped in. "Cassie told me that she was just grateful that you didn't kick her out of the team."

Passing a hand through his hair, Hank squirmed. "I would've never done that, because I understood why she did it; I'm just afraid that, at the end of the day, I was so busy being the Scientist Supreme and playing tough guy, that all she saw was another adult going his way, when I should have been more close to her." This time, he took a step towards Scott and looked at him right in his eyes. "Especially because I knew what she meant to you. Because I knew that you became Ant-Man precisely because of her!"

For a moment, Ant-Man looked at him with a plain face; then, he nodded curtly and then looked up towards the darkening sky. "I became Ant-Man because of Cassie." Glancing at his three companions, he then added: "And now that she's gone, what am I supposed to be?"

The three exchanged a worried look. Clint was the first to react. "Listen, Scott, I don't know what you're going through, but I sure know that there's no way Cassie would want you to threw your life away and stop being the hero she worshipped."

"Precisely. Your loss is terrible, but that's no reason to stop being Ant-Man; not when there's still many things to do." Hank added.

Taking one of Scott's hands in her, Kate said uncertainly : "Cassie told me once that she liked to think that her powers meant that, even though you were gone, there was still a hero that could prevent bad things from happening. That could prevent children from losing their parents, just to name one thing." Pausing for a second, she cut the chase and breathed: "I firmly believe that Cassie would want you to keep doing so."

Those words had an effect, for the first time in weeks. For the first time, Scott felt something about Cassie's death that wasn't just a black hole of desolation and despair. Smiling, he nodded.

"You're right. Cassie would want me to go on; would tell me to live my life, and to do what I can do."

_What he could do_... As he spoke, the image of an iron mask began to form in his brain, and he immediately knew one thing he could do.

He could make his daughter’s killer pay.

**Author's Note:**

> Peggy Burdick (formerly Lang) is Cassie's mother and Scott's ex-wife; they were divorced when he went to jail. Not happy to see her daughter endangered by Scott's superhero lifestyle, she sued him to gain custody of her. She was firmly against Cassie becoming a superhero, and it's kinda a pity that this side was never fully explored, as wasn't her reaction about her death (we might see something in the new Ant-Man comic, though, as the writer said she would make an appearance).
> 
> Blake Burdick is Cassie's stepfather; a cop, he simply hates superheroes, and Cassie... well, she kinda hated him. If I got it right, he's not that bad a person, he's just narrow-minded and someone who is likely to use his hands rather than his head.
> 
> I decided to include Thor in this because I liked when he made an euology at Wasp's funeral, after Secret Invasion. Even though he and Cassie (at least when she was Stature) met directly only once (in "I am an Avenger"), I decided to put him there because Thor has this element that I appreciate; even though he always remembers everybody how he is a god, he has demonstrated huge respect for the deeds of the 'mortals', and therefore it wouldn't be too OOC for him to defend Cassie's memory.  
> About the fact that he didn't appear in Children's Crusade... well, that's continuity mistake, because we know they had issues. So, either he should have been there, or he popped out later in the Mansion, whatever.
> 
> As for Hank Pym... while I liked the whole Mighty Avengers run, I felt like he was being kinda distant, especially towards Cassie, who was in a way his niece. So, I was intrigued by the idea of him receiving the news and realizing that, well, he could have been more considerate, even with all these things coming down on the team.  
> Besides, we know Hank isn't exactly the best guy to have around when you're looking for consideration; but that doesn't mean he can't feel a tiny bit guilty about it, I think.


End file.
